Backyard Bounty - White Clover (Trifolium repens)

A great ground-cover and found in most everyone's yard, the white clover is a summer classic. 

What you may not know is this plant is quite edible. The leaves can be eaten raw (before blooms form in salads) or cooked (like spinach), flowers can be dried and made into a tea, or eaten fresh (only when they're white or pink, never once they start browning).

Interesting fact about the clover - it's in the pea family and its blossom consists of a bunch of pea-like blossoms called 'wings and keels'. 

As a medicinal plant, the flowering heads have been used to purify and cleanse the blood, clense boils, sores, wounds, etc., heal disorders and diseases of the eye. A tea has also been used in the treatment of coughs, colds, and fevers. A tincture of the leaves can be applied as an ointment to gout.